The Frozen People, by Elly Griffiths.

    
     

          Detective Ali Dawson works for the Police on cold cases – some of them so old that the victims are known as the Frozen People, especially when she is asked to apply 21^st century investigative techniques to Victorian crimes, like that involving the ancestor of her son Finn’s ambitious boss, Isaac Templeton:  he has aspirations to lead the Tory party to victory sooner rather than later, but his ancestor has scandalous stories whirling about him – even in 2023 – that could damage his chances if it is revealed that Caine Templeton belonged to a gentleman’s club called the Collectors, ostensibly for collecting art – and oddities (a murderer’s brain, for example) – but to join, would-be applicants had first to kill a woman.  Ali is relieved she can’t travel back in time to investigate – until an ambitious young physicist finds a way that works, and like it or not, Ali is on her way.

            And what she discovers is more than enough to stay to solve more crimes (including Templeton and his Collectors) – but it transpires that her one chance to return to the 21^st century has been nabbed by someone else – and that someone has murder on his mind (oh, really?) – yes, here was I ambling along enjoying all the Dickensian characters and Elly Griffith’s wonderfully well-researched descriptions of every-day life in 1850 London (Chamber Pots – thank goodness for modern plumbing! And the enormous amounts of clothing that women had to wear:  if nothing else, the world has become a more comfortable place.)  But not a safe one with a Victorian killer on the loose.

            Ali is able to return to her own time after a few days of horrible suspense – only to find that her son Finn’s boss Isaac Templeton has been murdered at his country estate, and Finn has been charged with murder – by an over-zealous Detective Sergeant who wants everything tidied away with the minimum of fuss;  the CCTV showed a few blurry photos that could have been anyone – including Finn, so that is another mystery for Ali to solve. Whether she wants to or not.

            The ending leaves lots of questions unanswered as this is the first of a new series – which is SO good I hope Ms Griffiths already has Book Two ready for publication,  Ali is not glamorous;  she’s had three husbands of varying quality, celebrated her 50^th birthday and is past her prime, but she’s not dead yet, and capable of carrying this new series high.  FIVE STARS.   

 

Lucky Thing, by Tom Baragwanath.

 

            Well, the reader is the Lucky Thing to be enjoying another Kiwi-As thriller from Tom Baragwanath – who lives and writes in Paris, but has forgotten nothing of his origins in the Wairarapa town of Masterton on the North Island’s East Coast.  Once again, we meet Lorraine Henry, ostensibly a filing clerk in the local police station, but her photographic memory and acquaintance/friendship with most of the town’s denizens gives her an advantage on the town grapevine that no-one else has;  consequently, she is always brought in as an ‘observer’, taking notes for the police chief as required, but filling him in on her opinions later.

            And there is much to talk about and charges pending if they can only establish  what happened to  Jessica Mowbrie, a young local girl from the wrong end of town ( Lorraine’s end of town), who had won a place against  the local debating team of Langsford’s an exclusive private boy’s college:  now she is in intensive care in the local hospital after being found deep in the Tararua Ranges by a couple of  Finnish trampers.  Jessica is in an induced coma as she been given such a good hiding that her skull is fractured, and her family is looking for answers – and vengeance, a classic case of privilege against poverty, for it transpires that Jessica and her cousin Michaela were invited to a teen party at a woolshed belonging to one of the rich farmers of the district;  their drinks were spiked, Michaela was driven home semi-conscious, but Jessica disappeared.  The last person to see her was Stuart, eldest son of the farmer.  Which shows him in a very suspicious light, especially when he and his parents visit the police station all lawyered-up before they were asked:  the plot is thickening alarmingly.

            And more tragedy is on its way.  No-one is exempt, rich or poor. There are a raft of minor characters waiting in the wings to add to a seemingly insoluble mystery, and no-one comes away unscathed:  Lorraine’s life is threatened more than once on a single night and she is starting to wonder if being a filing clerk could be a dead-end job (sorry) before the cavalry turns up in the shape of Constable Dion, saving the day but not every life.

            Tom Baragwanath has proved to be no One Hit Wonder:  his second foray into small-town crime in rural Aotearoa New Zealand is just as meticulous and atmospheric as his first, and Lorraine, who lost so much in ‘Paper Cage’ is well and truly cemented into her role as so much more than just a paper shuffler. Good on you, girl!   FIVE STARS.   

     

 

Never Flinch, by Stephen King.

 

            Shy, middle-aged proprietor of Finders Keepers Private Detective Agency Holly Gibney has become a firm favourite with tens of thousands of King fans after several hair-raising semi-supernatural adventures in which she found courage and determination that her domineering mother (since deceased, thank goodness!) would never have thought her capable.  Now she has firm friends and a viable business:  life is good – until a woman is found murdered on a popular lakeside path.

            Holly is friends with Izzy Jaynes, one of the detectives in the local police department; Izzy respects Holly’s skills and promises to keep her name out of sight – which is very much a part of Holly’s ethics:  at this stage they are just batting the breeze and swapping ideas – until another body is found, with a name on a piece of paper clutched in its hand, just like the first.  A serial killer is operating, and as the bodies mount up the names turn out to be those of the   jury in a long ago murder trial who found the accused guilty of child sex abuse.  He was subsequently murdered in prison by another inmate, then exonerated posthumously when new evidence (which should have been collected at the time) was found.

            The whole city is buzzing with the scandal, and to fuel the flames, a wildly controversial feminist is on tour of mid-west centres – she loves audience confrontation, thumbing her nose and middle finger at all the religious right-to-lifers:  she’s ready to die for the cause!  Which she doesn’t – but her hapless assistant has bleach thrown in her face and avoids anthrax by the merest whisker.  Oh well, Okay then, it’s time to hire a bodyguard.  And she decides on Holly (who never applied for the job but is perfect because she hides successfully in crowds and no-one is more observant).

            Last but never least, Sista Bessie, an acclaimed soul and blues singer is starting her mighty comeback tour in this very same city in the very same venue on consecutive nights – with a serial killer operating too, so the suspense should be unbearable.

            But it isn’t.  I think this is one of King’s novels that has missed the mark;  as always his characters are well-drawn but we know who did what, and when too soon, and there are a number of mini-spoilers every now and then that (in my exalted opinion) didn’t need to be there;  everything got slowed down as a consequence – BUT!  Stephen King is still the relentlessly honest chronicler of today’s Trump America, and ‘Never Flinch’ succeeds for that reason alone.  FOUR STARS.   

 

           

 

 A Beautiful Family, by Jennifer Trevelyan.

 

            The long Christmas break is looming and a Wellington family is squabbling about where to get accommodation for their traditional holiday.  In previous years they have always gone somewhere remote, away from the crowds;  now (surprisingly) Mum wants to go ‘where there are people’, a complete change from her usual preference.  Dad reluctantly books a bach at her choice of venue a couple of hours up the coast;  he’s not really bothered where they go as long as he has a change of scene, which is a rest in itself.  Their two daughters are happy, too – Vanessa is fifteen and ready to experience what the world has to offer but is hampered by her 10 year-old sister, the narrator of this lovely story, a very shrewd and observant chronicler of events, but hardly experienced in life to  know the importance of what she is seeing.

            And little sister sees a great deal, especially when she chums up with Kahu, a 12 year-old Maori boy who is staying with his uncle, a local fisherman.  Firstly, they are both fascinated by the sad tale of a young girl around their own age who disappeared, believed drowned, and they spend a lot of time near a memorial her grieving mother has constructed on the beach;  they decide to pass the time when not swimming or getting sunburnt to look for clues as to the poor child’s presumed end.  Sadly, they both see a lot more than they wanted to know, and the friendship ends when little sister’s prized possession, a Sony Walkman her dad brought back for her on one of his trips goes missing and she mistakenly accuses one of Kahu’s cousins of taking it. 

            Which means that she’s now lonelier than ever, because big sister Vanessa is intent of breaking every behavioural rule in the book and, despite being grounded numerous times, sneaks expertly out their bedroom window to do who-knows-what.  And who is that creepy old guy who lives in the two-story place next door?  The little sister doesn’t like the way he looks at her – he gives her the creeps, but he wangles a dinner invite to their house just the same.  This Christmas break is starting to turn into an exercise in will-power to stay the distance.

            And Jennifer Trevelyan stays the distance too, building suspense beautifully and gradually, all thanks to her resourceful little heroine – whose name is not revealed until two thirds of the way through the story (which is why I haven’t named her – I’m no spoiler!).  Yes, they are a beautiful family, as the title says, but oh, the secrets the keep!  FIVE STARS.   

            The long Christmas break is looming and a Wellington family is squabbling about where to get accommodation for their traditional holiday.  In previous years they have always gone somewhere remote, away from the crowds;  now (surprisingly) Mum wants to go ‘where there are people’, a complete change from her usual preference.  Dad reluctantly books a bach at her choice of venue a couple of hours up the coast;  he’s not really bothered where they go as long as he has a change of scene, which is a rest in itself.  Their two daughters are happy, too – Vanessa is fifteen and ready to experience what the world has to offer but is hampered by her 10 year-old sister, the narrator of this lovely story, a very shrewd and observant chronicler of events, but hardly experienced in life to  know the importance of what she is seeing.

            And little sister sees a great deal, especially when she chums up with Kahu, a 12 year-old Maori boy who is staying with his uncle, a local fisherman.  Firstly, they are both fascinated by the sad tale of a young girl around their own age who disappeared, believed drowned, and they spend a lot of time near a memorial her grieving mother has constructed on the beach;  they decide to pass the time when not swimming or getting sunburnt to look for clues as to the poor child’s presumed end.  Sadly, they both see a lot more than they wanted to know, and the friendship ends when little sister’s prized possession, a Sony Walkman her dad brought back for her on one of his trips goes missing and she mistakenly accuses one of Kahu’s cousins of taking it. 

            Which means that she’s now lonelier than ever, because big sister Vanessa is intent of breaking every behavioural rule in the book and, despite being grounded numerous times, sneaks expertly out their bedroom window to do who-knows-what.  And who is that creepy old guy who lives in the two-story place next door?  The little sister doesn’t like the way he looks at her – he gives her the creeps, but he wangles a dinner invite to their house just the same.  This Christmas break is starting to turn into an exercise in will-power to stay the distance.

            And Jennifer Trevelyan stays the distance too, building suspense beautifully and gradually, all thanks to her resourceful little heroine – whose name is not revealed until two thirds of the way through the story (which is why I haven’t named her – I’m no spoiler!).  Yes, they are a beautiful family, as the title says, but oh, the secrets the keep!  FIVE STARS.   

            The long Christmas break is looming and a Wellington family is squabbling about where to get accommodation for their traditional holiday.  In previous years they have always gone somewhere remote, away from the crowds;  now (surprisingly) Mum wants to go ‘where there are people’, a complete change from her usual preference.  Dad reluctantly books a bach at her choice of venue a couple of hours up the coast;  he’s not really bothered where they go as long as he has a change of scene, which is a rest in itself.  Their two daughters are happy, too – Vanessa is fifteen and ready to experience what the world has to offer but is hampered by her 10 year-old sister, the narrator of this lovely story, a very shrewd and observant chronicler of events, but hardly experienced in life to  know the importance of what she is seeing.

            And little sister sees a great deal, especially when she chums up with Kahu, a 12 year-old Maori boy who is staying with his uncle, a local fisherman.  Firstly, they are both fascinated by the sad tale of a young girl around their own age who disappeared, believed drowned, and they spend a lot of time near a memorial her grieving mother has constructed on the beach;  they decide to pass the time when not swimming or getting sunburnt to look for clues as to the poor child’s presumed end.  Sadly, they both see a lot more than they wanted to know, and the friendship ends when little sister’s prized possession, a Sony Walkman her dad brought back for her on one of his trips goes missing and she mistakenly accuses one of Kahu’s cousins of taking it. 

            Which means that she’s now lonelier than ever, because big sister Vanessa is intent of breaking every behavioural rule in the book and, despite being grounded numerous times, sneaks expertly out their bedroom window to do who-knows-what.  And who is that creepy old guy who lives in the two-story place next door?  The little sister doesn’t like the way he looks at her – he gives her the creeps, but he wangles a dinner invite to their house just the same.  This Christmas break is starting to turn into an exercise in will-power to stay the distance.

            And Jennifer Trevelyan stays the distance too, building suspense beautifully and gradually, all thanks to her resourceful little heroine – whose name is not revealed until two thirds of the way through the story (which is why I haven’t named her – I’m no spoiler!).  Yes, they are a beautiful family, as the title says, but oh, the secrets the keep!  FIVE STARS.   

 

King of Ashes, by S. A. Cosby.

 

            I hate starting any review by saying ‘He’s Done it again!’  But it’s true – S. A. Cosby has produced yet another story that explodes off the page, a mixture of horrific violence and heartbreaking familial affection and an entirely believable chain of events which culminate in a drama of Shakespearean dimensions.  I have already started wondering what will happen to the protagonists, but Cosby (so far) has not introduced former characters into his marvellous fiction, so I shall just have to keep wondering.

            Roman Carruthers is a financial adviser to the rich, famous, and those who also like to keep a low profile.  He’s based in Atlanta, is very good at his job and really, life doesn’t get much better for a well-educated Black man with the gift of knowing the many paths money can take to increase its size.  Life is pretty satisfactory – until he gets a call from his sister in Jefferson Run, a rundown city in Virginia:  can he come home because their Daddy has been grievously injured in a Hit and Run.  Dante, their younger brother is being worse than useless – she needs Roman’s help, even for a short while, to run the family business which is a Crematory disposing of ‘cremains’ for those funeral homes who don’t have such facilities. 

            Roman can hardly say No;  his father put him through college to give him his glittering qualifications, but is dismayed to find when he reaches home that Dante is the author of all this misfortune, having decided with a loser friend to set himself up as a drug dealer – but sampling the product became more important, and the gangsters he got said product from want their money and  what could come have arranged his Daddy’s Hit and Run.  They are just about the Baddest gangsters in the State and are proud of it – why, they even have dogs who enjoy human flesh, as they showed Roman one night so that he would know they weren’t kidding.

            Sweet reason will hardly prevail against such killers, so Roman has to appeal to their greed:  they won’t touch him or his siblings while he’s making them money – he hopes.  But will his beloved family survive this terrible time – will Roman?  They have all kept a huge secret from each other for many years, but they always had the bedrock of their affection for each other to justify the reason.  Will that love survive?

            Yes, S. A. Cosby has truly done it again – compelled us to hang on to every page with its myriad characters so superbly realised, and to ask how much a man profits if he becomes King of the Ashes but loses everything else.  SIX STARS.   

 

 

In a Place of Darkness, by Stuart MacBride.

 

            Angus MacVicar, on his first day on the job as a newly-promoted Detective Constable, is fizzing with anticipation and enthusiasm, especially as a serial-killer seems to be targeting his Scottish home city of Oldcastle. In fact, the murders are so similar in their brutality and deviousness that a renowned FBI forensic psychologist has been called in to give his esteemed advice – Oldcastle will be famous!  Or infamous, depending upon how you look at such things.  Regardless, it’s a new day for Angus, and it gets even better when he learns that he will be meeting the FBI Expert at the Airport and accompanying him to his very posh(for Oldcastle) hotel, then to meet all of Angus’s BigWig bosses.

            In an ideal world.  The first shock for Angus is that Dr Jonathan Fife suffers from a form of dwarfism and is 4ft 5inches tall. As Angus is pushing 6’6” he feels somehow at a disadvantage:  surely someone could have let him know! But what would such knowledge gain?  That’s right:  sweet FA.  And Dr Fife is not thrilled to be in Bonnie Scotland, either, in fact he hates everything about it:  the weather (always raining), the food, the accents, the dead-loss policing, and the complete lack of computer skills employed by so-called police experts.  No wonder this guy is literally getting away with murder every time – it’s almost impossible not to!  The Press have baptised the killer The Fortnight Killer because a new horribly tortured body has turned up every two weeks and the corpse’s partner disappears, never to be seen again:  surely Dr Fife with all his expertise could contribute valuable insights, instead of bitching and moaning about everything, to the extent that Angus has been delegated as his Minder and driver and Anything Else You’d Like, Sir, because Angus is lowly.  And new. 

            And getting very sick of sarcastic, loudmouth little shortarses – until he realises that behind all the bluster and smartassery is a mind like a steel trap, keenly analytical and not afraid to follow investigative paths which initially seem to lead nowhere – until they reveal all at the end of the tunnel.

            And it goes without saying that death waits at the end of the tunnel, too, unless the unlikely Dynamic Duo of MacVicar and Fife can change the outcome, in the best tradition of all of MacBride’s excellent crime novels. He is superb at combining dark humour and violence;  his characters are all entirely credible, and he writes of his environment with affection and honesty.  (it never stops raining!)  And it would be great if these two singular characters are the start of a new series – sure hope so!  FIVE STARS.       

 

Fangs for Nothing, by Steffanie Holmes.

 

            Lord Alaric Valerian has a problem:  his imperious mother is coming to visit his castle and will be appalled at the mess his various artistic endeavours have created;  his butler Reginald advises him to employ for a short time one  of those 21^st century ‘unclutterers’ who managed to ruthlessly weed out what one doesn’t need and tastefully display what one does.  The only snag with that plan is that Lord Alaric has been a vampire for several hundred years – he sleeps during the day and stays awake all night.  He literally cannot stand sunlight; it’s liable to burn him to a very unattractive frazzle, so working with the human Unclutterer will present myriad different problems – but none so dire as his mother’s reaction to his hoarding addiction:  she wants to hold a ball at the castle, inviting all the others of their kind (their numbers are higher than you would think, in fact one vampire property entrepreneur has started developing a very exclusive enclave in the village adjoining Alaric’s castle) and her rage would be incendiary if she saw it buried in all his clutter. 

            So.  A human Unclutterer it is.  Enter Winifred Preston, Unclutterer Supreme, with the scars to prove it:  her mother is a Hoarder with a PHD in rubbish;  consequently, Winnie is obsessively neat and a champion at discarding that which is unnecessary to one’s immediate environment:  she’s the girl for the job, alright – until she meets her future boss unexpectedly and in awkward circumstances, as he chivalrously helps her ward off a creep at the local pub:  a kiss is exchanged and the groundwork is laid for Red Hot Romance.

            Well, of course it is!  This is a Cozy Vampire Romance, after all, but what fun it is keeping up with all the great characters, especially the Nevermore Book Club et al, a group of ladies whom Winnie befriends as much to find out info about her new employer (who keeps very odd hours!) as to make new friends.  It takes Winnie some time before she realises what kind of unique person Alaric actually is, and by that time she is totally enamoured of him (he’s not just astoundingly handsome;  he also has a heart of gold – and a sense of humour!)  She can’t go wrong.  Except that his mum doesn’t like her and there have been several attacks on the locals lately, causing much fear and concern:  are they random one-offs, or is there a serial killer operating in the village?

            No-one is any the wiser at story’s end, so all Ms Holmes’s fans (and they are legion) are fervently hoping there will be a book two – the sooner the better – especially as Ms Holmes is a great successor to all the Vampire authors who came before her - and she’s very, very funny.  And don’t we need fun to distract us in our reading these days!  FIVE STARS.